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Irish Names

Irish names carry the widest gap on this site between how they look and how they sound, because Irish spelling records a sound system English does not have. Many arrive in two forms: the Irish spelling and an anglicization made by a clerk writing down what he heard. Both are in use, often in the same family, and neither is the wrong one.

Languages behind these names Irish Irish Gaelic uncertain Hebrew Old Irish Latin

Rankings for

55 names, uncommon — 100 to 499 a year, in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Keira Keira rose twice, two years apart, and both markets moved together — American births went 433 in 2003 to 1,244 in 2004, then on to 3,022 by 2006, with England and Wales tracing the same two steps in the same years.
Girl Irish 469 in 2025
Keegan Keegan descends from a pagan god, not a small flame — Aodh was the Irish deity of fire and the sun, and the diminutive gloss softens a name that originally invoked him.
Boy Irish 497 in 2025
Shane Shane is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," and it exists because English speakers wrote down how Ulster pronounced Seán.
Boy Irish 439 in 2025
Eileen Eileen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Eibhlín, and its meaning is genuinely unsettled — it may render Helen, or Evelyn, or a native Irish name.
Girl Irish 437 in 2025
Briana Briana is a feminine of Brian, and it first appears in Spenser's Faerie Queene in 1590 — which makes it one of very few names whose earliest recorded use is a specific poem.
Girl Irish 431 in 2025
Shawn Shawn is a boy's name, the phonetic American respelling of the Irish Seán, which is itself the Irish form of John.
Boy Irish 412 in 2025
Tomas Tomas is a boy's name of Aramaic origin meaning "twin," a form of Thomas used across Ireland, Scandinavia and the Hispanic world.
Boy Irish 394 in 2025
Kennedi Peaked in 2015 · 15,856 births since 1989
Girl Irish 398 in 2025
Bridget Bridget means exalted one, and it belonged to a goddess before a saint — Brigid was the Irish deity of poetry, smithcraft and healing, and the saint absorbed her feast, her fire and her attributes.
Girl Irish 385 in 2025
Corey Corey is a boy's name from an Irish surname, generally given as dweller near a hollow.
Boy Irish 351 in 2025
Aileen Aileen means hazel, most likely, and the shining gloss usually given for it comes from confusion with Helen — the Norman Aveline is the likelier parent, and it has nothing to do with light.
Girl Irish 340 in 2025
Kaitlyn Kaitlyn is a girl's name that respells the Irish Caitlín — which came into Irish from French, and into French from Greek.
Girl Irish 340 in 2025
Flynn Flynn is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "reddish" or "ruddy," from a surname rather than a personal name.
Boy Irish 314 in 2025
Erin Erin is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "Ireland."
Girl Irish 349 in 2025
Tara Tara is a girl's name from the hill in County Meath where the High Kings were inaugurated, and its meaning is a place of assembly.
Girl Irish 322 in 2025
Conor Conor is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "lover of hounds," from the Irish Conchobhar.
Boy Irish 292 in 2025
Neil Neil means champion or cloud, from Irish, and it traveled to Iceland with the Vikings and back to England with the Normans — so the English Neil arrived by way of Scandinavia and France.
Boy Irish 288 in 2025
Kelly Kelly is a name from the Irish surname Ó Ceallaigh, borne almost entirely by men for most of its history and now 86 percent female in our data.
Unisex Irish 403 in 2025
Conner Conner means desiring hounds rather than loving them — the Irish joins a word for a hound or wolf to one meaning desire, and the softer lover of hounds gloss smooths over what was a warrior's name.
Boy Irish 286 in 2025
Kael Peaked in 2025 · 6,551 births since 1969
Boy Irish 263 in 2025
Dillon Dillon has two unrelated sources that English cannot separate — an Irish surname of uncertain meaning and the Welsh Dylan, a sea god from the Mabinogi.
Boy Irish 294 in 2025
Ashlynn Peaked in 2010 · 27,078 births since 1964
Girl Irish 258 in 2025
Brennan Peaked in 2009 · 38,898 births since 1916
Boy Irish 236 in 2025
Katelyn Katelyn is one of five respellings that divided the same sound in the 1990s, and Ireland ranks it 292nd — far above the United States at 1078th, the reverse of how its sister spelling Kaitlyn behaves.
Girl Irish 225 in 2025
Saoirse Saoirse is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "freedom" or "liberty."
Girl Irish 222 in 2025
Brendan Brendan is not Irish in origin — it comes from a Welsh word meaning a prince, borrowed into Irish, and its saint is credited with a transatlantic voyage six centuries before Columbus.
Boy Irish 195 in 2025
Cullen Peaked in 2010 · 17,963 births since 1880
Boy Irish 200 in 2025
Imogen Imogen is a girl's name that exists because of a printing error.
Girl Irish 211 in 2025
Braden Braden means descendant of the salmon, and the fish is not decorative — the Salmon of Knowledge is the center of one of the best-known Irish stories, in which Fionn gains all wisdom by burning his thumb on it.
Boy Irish 183 in 2025
Shea Shea is a unisex name of Irish origin from the surname Ó Séaghdha, whose root means "hawk-like" or "stately."
Unisex Irish 312 in 2025
Kathleen Kathleen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Caitlín, a form of Catherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
Girl Irish 201 in 2025
Kasey Kasey means vigilant, and it is one of the more evenly divided names on this site — 73 percent of the births in our records are female, against an Irish surname that was of course carried by both.
Unisex Irish 285 in 2025
Bria Bria is a girl's name usually explained as a short form of Brianna, though an Italian source is also proposed.
Girl Irish 199 in 2025
Kilian Peaked in 2005 · 14,262 births since 1972
Boy Irish 177 in 2025
Keily Peaked in 2018 · 5,442 births since 1969
Girl Irish 194 in 2025
Shay Shay is a unisex name of Irish origin meaning "hawk-like" or "stately," the phonetic spelling of the Irish Séaghdha.
Unisex Irish 261 in 2025
Rian Rian is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "little king," from the Old Irish rí, king, with a diminutive ending.
Unisex Irish 189 in 2025
Seamus Seamus is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter," the Irish form of James, and it was used in Britain as a slur for an Irishman.
Boy Irish 154 in 2025
Ryann Peaked in 2006 · 13,104 births since 1971
Girl Irish 184 in 2025
Rori Peaked in 2022 · 3,750 births since 1947
Girl Irish 172 in 2025
Cormac Cormac is a boy's name of Irish origin, usually read as "son of the charioteer," borne by the High King credited with Ireland's earliest law tracts.
Boy Irish 150 in 2025
Cian Cian is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "ancient" or "enduring."
Boy Irish 148 in 2025
Bryant Bryant means noble or high, and the t is a French accident — Norman scribes added it to the Irish Brian, so the surname carries a letter the original name never had.
Boy Irish 146 in 2025
Cara Cara is a girl's name with two independent sources: the Italian cara, meaning "dear" or "beloved," and the Irish cara, meaning "friend."
Girl Irish 168 in 2025
Tyrone Tyrone means Eoghan's land, an Irish county, and it reached American use almost entirely through one actor — Tyrone Power, whose grandfather took the name from the county his family came from.
Boy Irish 132 in 2025
Micheal Micheal is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose full form is a rhetorical question — who is like God?
Boy Irish 130 in 2025
Ciara Ciara is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "dark" or "black-haired," the feminine of Ciarán.
Girl Irish 155 in 2025
Finnian Peaked in 2016 · 4,351 births since 1993
Boy Irish 119 in 2025

Related Origins